Under Pressure! Nudging Electricity Consumption within Firms: Feedback from a Field Experiment

Christophe Charlier, Gilles Guerassimoff, Ankinée Kirakozian and Sandrine Selosse
Additional contact information
Gilles Guerassimoff: MINES ParisTech
Sandrine Selosse: MINES ParisTech

No 2019-18, GREDEG Working Papers from Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France

Abstract: Many economists and psychologists have studied the impact of nudges on households' pro-environmental behaviors. Interestingly, "private nudges" can be imagined for companies. Yet, studies focusing on nudging employees' energy use are rare. The objective of our paper is to explore this issue with the help of a field experiment conducted at 47 French companies' sites. Using a difference-in-difference methodology, the effects of three nudges on employees' energy conservation are tested. The first nudge, "moral appeal", stresses the responsible use of energy. The second one, "social compariso"”, informs employees on the energy consumption of other firms participating in the experiment. Finally, the third nudge, "stickers", alerts employees about good energy conservation practices. Our results stress the complementarity of these nudges. When implemented alone, the three nudges have no significant effects on energy consumption. However, when the moral appeal and social comparison nudges are combined with the stickers one, they become effective.

Keywords: Energy demand management; Private nudges; Peer pressure; Field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D04 D91 Q41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2019-05, Revised 2020-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cbe, nep-ene, nep-env and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Forthcoming in The Energy Journal

Downloads: (external link)
http://195.220.190.85/GREDEG-WP-2019-18.pdf Revised version, 2020-03 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Under Pressure! Nudging Electricity Consumption within Firms. Feedback from a Field Experiment (2021)
Journal Article: Under Pressure! Nudging Electricity Consumption within Firms. Feedback from a Field Experiment (2021)
Working Paper: Under pressure! Nudging electricity consumption within firms. Feedback from a field experiment (2021)
Working Paper: Under Pressure! Nudging Electricity Consumption within Firms. Feedback from a Field Experiment (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gre:wpaper:2019-18

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